The Source
by SpeedForceConduit
Summary: The fateful night that Flash brushed shoulders with death left him with more than he bargained for. Severe post-traumatic stress begins to interfere with his ability to function as a hero and as a person. Soon, his life sees an influx of new speedsters: some wishing to help him, and others with more sinister schemes. But the 'Speed Force' doesn't discriminate. It supplies them all.


_**(A/N) Welcome!**_

_**This story is meant to take place in the aftermath of Justice League Unlimited's final episode, "Destroyer". It is meant to be largely in canon with the show with no history changed across the five seasons. However, minor creative decisions have been made about some things that may have happened before it began. Any retcons that result from that will be very minor – hardly noticeable in all likelihood. I'm just trying to create the best story that I can.**_

_**On that note, I do not own anything in this story including characters, locations, events, or anything related. They all belong to DC Comics, Warner Brothers, etc. No copyright infringement intended.**_

_**Hope you enjoy!**_

* * *

The regular 5 o'clock rush hour in Keystone city started with a literal bang on one particularly slow Friday evening. An enormous tractor trailer barreled through the city's streets like a charging rhinoceros… showing no sign of intending to slow down.

The driver and his companion in the passenger seat sat rigidly in the truck's cab. Intense stares were directed through the windshield as cars, pedestrians, bikers, and the like made desperate attempts to get out of their path. Not all were quite making it in time.

Completely steeled to the destruction he was witnessing, the passenger leaned to his partner as spoke in a heavy accent, "I make call." His broken English came across in an almost bored sounding monotone. The driver merely nodded and continued to steer. The passenger whipped out an old flip phone – outdated by at least six years. He slowly and deliberately dialed the number of the individual that gave them this assignment. He was supposedly waiting for them at the prescribed destination. "Hello. This is Piotr. We are making way to 'drop zone' now. We have the materials you asked. Remember, pay in cash," he continued, clearly struggling to find the right words to match his message.

The voice on the other line began to prattle on with questions, each of which were met with a maximum of three words for answers. Piotr was beginning to get bored and nonchalantly peered out of the window across the river towards Central City – the place where the famed superhero named The Flash operated. Piotr allowed his mind to wander across the stories he had heard from fellow underworld thugs who had run-ins with the speedster. Bright red garb, reflective eye lenses, a smug smirk, and pitiful one liners were the common traits attributed to the character. Piotr let out a low chuckle as he tried to envision what this clown must look like. Regardless of the supposed threat he posed, the image that the criminal imagined didn't do anything to inspire fear in his mind.

"No sir. Nothing funny about you. Yes. Perhaps five minutes," Piotr finally spoke up into his phone. Slamming it shut, he peeked back at his cohort who was gritting his teeth from tension. The speedometer read nearly 100 miles per hour. The zone called for 30. Another chuckle escaped Piotr's lips as something caught his eye from the driver side's rear view mirror. A blur, or… something.

There it was again, in his own mirror on the passenger side. He swiftly spun around to stare through the back windshield to see what was behind them. Nothing but a trail of broken cars and capsized street vendor carts. Jerking his gaze back to the driver, he could have sworn he saw the reddish blur creeping closer to the driver mirror again.

"How're we doin' today fellas?" a voice asked from outside of the driver's window. "I'm the Flash. I'll be your escort to jail this evening!"

With that, and enormous thud was heard as the cab of the truck began to vibrate. Spinning around wildly, the man with the phone spied their detached cargo crate growing smaller as more and more distance appeared between it and the truck.

"STOP IT! Stopitstopit STOP THE TRUCK!" he screamed at his partner in crime who was bewildered by what was going on. The vibration of the cab turned to violent thrashing as a tire seemed to be taken out of commission. The driver lost control of the steering wheel and stared in terror as it twisted and turned without his influence. A red glove shot through the window and stabilized the wheel for him. Following the arm with his eyes, the driver looked into the opaque white lenses of the scarlet speedster's mask. Though his eyes were covered by them, a look of sheer determination and a boatload of focus could be discerned from the hero's face as he guided the out-of-control truck to a safe stop off of the road.

The two criminals were physically and emotionally exhausted from the ordeal and did not put up a fight as the Flash hauled them out of their death machine of a motor vehicle. They didn't even require restraints – they simply collapsed on the ground with eyes wide from terror. Flash stood watch over them until the KCPD arrived on the scene.

"Man. If it turns out you guys were driving under the influence, you may never get the opportunity to reenact a Die Hard chase sequence ever again," the speedster quipped as the officers put the men in cuffs. After watching the goons get ushered into the back seat of a police car, he sped off back to where he disengaged the truck's trailer holding the secret cargo. Police were already on the scene with hazmat and bomb squad units. Approaching the officer in charge, he looked the trailer up and down.

"We appreciate your help, but there's nothing left for you do here. We've got the rest of this situation under control," the man barked as he watch the red-clad vigilante approach.

"I know it's a sketchy crate, but are the beekeeper suit guys necessary?" Flash asked as he watched the hazmat team arrange their equipment.

"We don't know, but we aren't in the business of taking chances. Better safe than sorry. So, like I said, your presence here is… redundant now. My men will handle things from here," the officer said sourly as he turned his back. Flash frowned at the man's rudeness. No matter how many fans he managed to create among the members of the Central and Keystone police departments, there always seemed to be even more that were against him. He shrugged it off as he became aware of the excited squeals coming from the nearby civilians.

_Redundant_, Wally sneered in his mind. _Whatever, sourpuss. I've got my adoring public to regale._

* * *

Six of the seven founding members of the Justice League counted the 25th minute as it passed. That's 25 whole minutes since the time that their weekly meeting was _supposed_ to start. The most frustrating part was that this wasn't the first time that this particular 7th member has been late. In fact, it was starting to become a regular thing (despite his insistence that he would change –that things would be different next time).

This "next time" was the last straw for Green Lantern. He brought his fist down onto the table's edge making the whole thing tremble.

"He's out of excuses. This isn't acceptable! How long are we going to put up with this?"

"John, please," Hawkgirl said, touching his arm to calm him down.

"There's no reason for it," John continued, snatching his arm away from her, "we already get enough accusations of acting like the founders are an elitist club. If we drill the extended members of the League so hard for coming up short on commitments, why aren't we nailing the kid for showing up late to **three meetings in a row?**"

"Green Lantern's complaint has merit," J'onn calmly stated. "Since the pace of activity slowed after the defeat of Darkseid, Wally has been showing signs of… lagging."

"To be fair, I think we've all been taking it a little easy after getting out of _that _fiasco," Superman said. "I've had to tone it down considerably after I nearly leveled Metropolis in that fight."

"Speak for yourself," Batman grumbled. "I've had to hit harder since spending so much time away from Gotham. The criminals seem to think that my attention can be easily diverted from the city. I've had to spend a tremendous amount of time reestablishing my presence over the last few weeks."

"Yeah, well you know what they say," came a voice from the entrance of the room, "when the bat's away, the… other animals… will… play?" The source of the voice stopped in the doorway. The cold stares of his teammates froze the path in front of him. "I know, I know guys. You all want to tie me to the nose of a Javelin right now, but I was legitimately busy this time! Some goons on a monster truck rampage were tearing up Keystone and…"

"You're forgetting that we monitor your activity every time you put on that suit," Batman interrupted. "You wrapped up that issue over an hour ago. You've been flirting with your fan base the whole rest of the time – **despite **our regularly scheduled meeting time."

"Hey! Public image is important! Not just for me, but for the whole League," Flash insisted, "Not everyone has learned to trust us again quite yet. And we should really start to rethink our monitoring system. People are making a BIG stink about Big-Brother-spying and stuff like that nowadays…"

"What we do saves lives, Flash," Superman said sternly, "And protects our own wellbeing. If a member of the League finds themselves in a situation over their heads, it's important that we know about it so we can send backup as necessary."

"Also, it's a good way to keep each other honest," Wonder Woman said intently staring at Flash who was desperately trying not to meet her gaze. "This deceitfulness is uncharacteristic of you, Wally. What's going on?"

"I-" he started but hit a crack in his voice. He bowed his head in momentary silence as the team awaited his answer with hard stares. "I think I need to get away," he mustered the strength to say. More silence followed for a couple of seconds before he went on. "I've just been feeling really… off… lately. I can't explain it – this, I don't know how to describe it… heaviness. Like my body wants to quit and my emotions want to burst. I just-" he stopped again. Some stares in the audience softened a bit. Those that didn't seemed to get harder. "It all started after I almost died that one time," he said finally. He looked away from the table and off into space (literally). No one made any moves to speak for a long time – including Flash. He seemed to begin to have trouble standing up. Superman and Hawkgirl rose and went over to him, supporting him when he started to slump a little more. He was sweating heavily and breathing irregularly.

"Wally?" Hawkgirl asked in a tone of worry mixed with sympathy. He didn't respond, but pulled his mask backwards off of his face. His eyes looked sad and terrified at the same time.

"Help him to the bathroom," Batman said to Superman, "he's having a panic attack. He needs to calm down before we can do any more with him." Superman led Wally forward towards the men's room. J'onn took Hawkgirl's place on the other side to support his weight. The rest of the group watched the trio as they left the room. They exchanged glances once they were out of sight, not sure of what to say or do.

One thing was clear, however. The experience that night with the Brainiac infused Luthor was much more impactful than any of them had realized.

* * *

_**Hope you liked the opening here. For a little more background, I've decided to make Wally about 23 years old here. He's been the Flash for four years and served some time as Kid Flash before that. Right now, he's sort of straddling Keystone and Central cities with trying to protect them and has been doing a reasonable job so far.**_

_**But his internal struggles have been putting him off of his game and he's had a hard time staying on top of things since the events of "Destroyer". The slowed down pace of activity with the League gave his post-traumatic stress from the Speed Force experience to sink in and it's resulted in troubles similar to Tony Stark in Iron Man 3 after his Avengers wormhole experience. Truthfully, I've drawn a bit of inspiration from that in that way.**_

_**I'm a massive Flash fan and will center the majority of this story on the Flash family mythos and cast of characters. The Justice League will be around, but the Flashes are at the heart of things. I figured I'd post this story here rather than the 'Flash' fiction section since it takes place in the DCAU show's continuity. I don't have any real pairings in mind as of yet, but if there's something you really want to see, give me shout. But romance isn't a humungous focus here.**_

_**Anyway, I'd appreciate any feedback by way of reviews. Don't feel pressured, but they'd really make me happy if you took a little time to leave them to tell me what you thought! Don't be a stranger! The next part will be up soon.**_


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